actually hear me out a sec.
what if we as domainers collectively gave the registrars the middle finger and tell them to keep their huge domain reg prices?
Dotster and Name and netfirms have shown a "hint" of the lowest possible cost a domain should be with their 99 cents and $1.99 specials.
you think they are giving that price at "their cost" or are they STILL making $$$$? with those prices?
As a rule like with clothing manufacturers. when they cut their prices down to 50% off to make room for next year's in coming new fashion updates. they still are making 100% profit. then that means at no discount. at retail prices these greedy bastards were making 400-500% profit all year until that 50% discount at end of year.
Name is willing to drop their costs down to 99 cents from $10.99 and dotster is willing to drop to $1.99.
That just means all this time they have been making huge profits.
so let me pose a question. how much domains do most pro domainers have? 100?10,000?
and each year how much is that in renewals?
now next question.
how much is it to become a registrar? to buy a license to be able to register .com, .net?,org?
i remember reading prices from $50K to $150K to as high as $500K
that being said. what if we as domainers pooled our cash to become like a timeshare?all of use. like stock holders of the company? each one of us with our investment in the company can forever
be able to register however many domains and renew however many years for just $1?
you pay one fee maybe per year or per month for the privilege to use the license.
and "to keep the lights on"
Who would be interested in investing? How many domainers do you think would transfer all their domains to such a collective registrar?
meanwhile.
This "Registrar" will also register domains for non members at competitive prices similar to name and dotster and the like.
it will also have its own domain marketplace that will offer it's "stock holders"
an outlet to sell their domains with a way cheaper auction commission if sold. To hell with 20% or even 15%. how about 5%?
So essentially it would be an "all you can eat" buffet. Pay one fee each year.
I mean I know NP is already sort of like this. just minus the whole "registrar" bit.
But couldn't this be possible?
Could a registrar become a non-profit of sorts? maybe not a "domainer religion" but there's other ways to be a non-profit.
We could set up a charity where a percentage of the registrar's profits will be donated to worthwhile causes.
making the registrar Tax free.
Am I just daydreaming? or is this possible?
By the way? if someone uses this idea or parts of it? remember. this post will be forever accessible on Google with a time stamp.
That's my patent. lol
There are other parts to this idea that would make this work but I got other more important things to do. like domaining. lol
